Telephone conversation temporary interrupter



Aug. 30, 1949. N. J. DUTRA TELEPHONE CONVERSATION TEMPORARY} INTERRUPTER Filed Feb. 5, 1948 INVENTQRl Norma z JDMf/w A TTORNEYS.

Patented Aug. 30, 1949 TELEPHONE CONVERSATION TEMPORARY INTERRUPTER Norman Joseph Dutra, New Bedford, Mass.

Application February 5, 1948, Serial No. 6,517

1 Claim. (Cl. 179-90) The object of this invention is to enable the called party, or the calling party, to converse privately with a third party in his or her presence.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is an elevation of a dial telephone showing my device as used in connection therewith;

Figure 2 is a plan view of a fragmental portion of the dial with my device applied, looking in the direction of line 2-2 of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the device.

The device, as shown in Figure 3 designated generally II], is made of an elastic, resilient, rubber-like material such as a high-grade rubber used in making erasers. The device is shown as being provided with an under surface H, a top surface l2, and side surfaces l3, the same being of generally rectangular structure, although this shape is not essential. Also, one end l4 may be slanting for convenience, although this end is not used and serves merely as a handle. The shape is not material. The opposite end l5 of the device is tapered, as shown, with its end l6 of a thicknesswise dimension which will pass between the overhanging finger stop I! and the dial l8 of the conventional dial telephone and is so tapered along the surface I 9 that when forced into a position between the dial and the finger stop, it will be compressed and the tendency for it to expand will exert a sufllcient friction on the surface of the dial and the under surface of the finger stop so as to maintain the device I'll wedged between the two, as shown in Figure 1.

It is well known that the internal mechanism of a dial telephone of the character here shown provides a spring for rotating the-dial in a clockwise direction with off-normal contacts for shunting the transmitter when the dial is moved from the at-rest position to which the spring rotates the dial-all as shown in Patent 2,258,266 dated October 7, 1941--and, therefore, I have not illustrated this mechanism in connection with this invention.

In order to utilize the device, it is merely necessary to rest the under surface near the end l5 on the dial and force it beneath the finger stop into the position shown in Figure 1 which causes the dial to rotate clockwise, moving the off-normal contacts so that the transmitter will no longer function and will be held in this position by the wedging action of the device. The party on the end of the telephone line where this device has thus been inserted may then freely talk with another person without the necessity of covering the telephone, and the party at the other end of the line will be waiting for the resumption of the conversation. Removing this device permits the spring to move the dial to the operative position, thus re-connecting the talking circuit.

I claim:

In combination with a dial telephone having a rotatably mounted dial, off-normal contacts for shunting the transmitter, a spring rotating said dial in one direction to an at-rest position, a finger stop extending over the marginal edge of the dial, an elastic member having a wedgeshaped end portion of a size to enter but not pass between said dial and finger stop, means including said wedge-shaped end portion whereby when the member is forced between the dial and finger stop the dial is moved due to friction between the member and dial and held spaced from its normal at-rest position against the movement of the spring to open said off-normal contacts.

NORMAN JOSEPH DUTRA.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Burt Oct.'23, 1877 Number 

